US news outlets were six times more interested in Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (left) than in Alexandre Bissonnette–even though Bissonnette is accused of killing six times as many people.
If you were unfamiliar with the way US corporate media works, you might assume that the murder of six people in a Quebec City mosque, allegedly by far-right white supremacist Alexandre Bissonnette, would be a big story. After all, the January 29 massacre happened when the United States was had just begun a furious debate over Donald Trump’s executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, ostensibly as an anti-terrorism measure. Thousands of protesters descended upon airports across the country, denouncing the order as arbitrary scapegoating.
The suspect in the attack at the Cultural Islamic Center of Quebec, which left eight wounded in addition to those killed, was known for his anti-immigrant (and anti-feminist) views; among the “likes” on his (now suspended) Facebook page were Donald Trump, French neo-fascist Marine Le Pen, the Israeli Defense Forces and anti-Muslim writers Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens (The Intercept, 1/30/17). The attack could have provided a critical lesson in the fallacy, and the danger, of singling out particular categories of people.
That is, if US media had paid more than passing attention to the story.
| Zehaf-Bibeau | Bissonnette | |
| ABC | 6 | 1 |
| CBS | 6 | 4 |
| NBC | 5 | 2 |
| CNN | 46 | 4 |
| Fox | 10 | 1 |
| MSNBC | 7 | 1 |
| NewsHour | 3 | 0 |
| NPR | 5 | 2 |
| Total | 88 | 15 |
To get a sense of how little coverage the Quebec mosque attack got, FAIR counted mentions of Bissonnette’s name in eight outlets included in the Nexis news database, from January 30 (when his name was released by police) until February 2. For comparison purposes we tallied mentions of the name of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the reported assailant in a 2014 attack on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, that left one soldier, along with Zehaf-Bibeau, dead. We searched for his name in stories from October 22–25, 2014.
Every outlet we checked had more coverage of Zehaf-Bibeau than of Bissonnette—ranging from 50 percent more stories on CBS to more than 11 times as many stories on CNN. (The PBS NewsHour, which ran three stories referencing Zehaf-Bibeau, did not run any stories on Bissonnette.) Mostly these outlets ran one or two stories talking about the mosque attack suspect, versus 5–7 stories with the parliament attacker. All in all, there were 88 Zehaf-Bibeau stories and 15 Bissonnette stories—a ratio of about 6 to 1.
Of course, as with any two incidents, there are differences between the two attacks—the most obvious being that the one Bissonnette is accused of killed six times as many victims. But for corporate media, the salient difference is that Zehaf-Bibeau was a Muslim convert, reportedly upset about Canadian military intervention in the Middle East. (He also had a long history of substance abuse problems and reportedly told a friend that “the Devil is chasing me,” but that was less relevant to news outlets’ choice to focus on him.)
Corporate media in the United States have a strong predisposition to identify “terrorism” as politically motivated violence committed by Muslims—even though such crimes are a small percentage of US political violence. This association, of course, leads them to cover violence perpetrated by Muslims more heavily, reinforcing the misleading connection between terror and Islam—and leaving stories that might encourage the public to reconsider the issue, like the Quebec mosque attack, to fade away out of the media spotlight.
Correction: An earlier version of this post used a photo of another Canadian implicated in a terror attack, Martin Couture-Rouleau, instead of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org. You can find him on Twitter at @JNaureckas.
The devil you sow
The Press doing wrong? Say it isn’t so…. Lmao
And what is it you love so much about Communism, libtard?
This article makes the mistake of assuming # of victims = significance of an attack.
Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack got more coverage because it was an attack on the Parliament of Canada, the symbol of Canadian democracy, in the capital city of Canada. The attack had the Canadian Prime Minister hiding in a closet. It happened in broad daylight, and had the attack succeeded at killing a politician it would have causes quite a bit of trouble. The attack on the mosque in Quebec is a tragedy but the fact that more people died does not mean it had the political and news significance outside of Quebec and in the world press that an attack on parliament will.
Also cross-posted at Common Dreams:
It isn’t fair to equate the two incidents’ coverage, as there were more than five stories to report on in the Ottawa shooting:
1) The Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers – who carries the mace, the symbol of the authority of the House, in the daily parade into the House of Commons chamber – turned out to be bad-ass. This alone got a lot of coverage.
2) Though not as well-covered at the time, parliamentary security guard Samearn Son,wrestled with Zehaf-Bibeau to try to get his weapon and got a bullet in the leg for his efforts.
3) There was coverage of the passers-by, who came to try to aid and comfort the unarmed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, guard on duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – shot in the back three times by Zehaf-Bibeau. In an emotional interview on CBC radio, on of these people, Barbara Winters recalled that “I told him you are loved. You are brave. You are good.”
4) Just a few days earlier,Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, had been killed in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. QC in a hit-and-run attack by Martin Couture-Rouleau (note: that’s _his_ picture in the article above). Couture-Rouleau had been trying to leave Canada, to join then nascent ISIS.
5) It was an attack on Parliament, eh.
On the other hand, there were six stories to cover in the Quebec mosque massacre:
1) Khaled Belkacemi
2) Azzeddine Soufiane
3) Aboubaker Thabti
4) Mamadou Tanou Barry
5) Ibrahima Barry
6) Abdelkrim Hassane
For some reason, these stories aren’t as compelling to US media.
Firstly: thanks for correcting the photo.
No need to be righteous with me, Jim: I voted for this Liberal Federal government and I’m glad my MP is a Liberal.
There are a lot of things we’ve gotten wrong in the past here in Canada. And we very likely will get lots wrong in the future, but for this story…
Canadians, Canada’s governments, its various communities, and the news media got this one right. The blame for the killings, though initially incorrect, was quickly corrected. The people of Canada, and the world (if not the USA), rallied around and clearly expressed their solidarity with the people in the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec and with all muslims, immigrants, and refugees. These are not dirty words in Canada.
(Maybe, just maybe, they’ll finally get rid of that friggin’ cross in the chambers of the Assemblée nationale in Québec City.)
It occurred to me, this morning: “Heck, maybe in the ‘States, mass killings are so frequent, that they’re barely newsworthy…” Y’know, like high school teacher-student sex. Yawn, it happens every day. Six people killed in Canada? Boring! Besides, they probably speak french, so who really cares? Not worth the ink to print it, eh?
So I checked – http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting: It’s barely Feb 7th, 38 days into the new year, and there are already 28 mass shootings in the ‘States.
What the frak is wrong with you people down there? Y’all really, really, need a talking to.
Jim, you are awesome in my book and even if you didn’t get every detail right or your annalogies or comparisons arnt 100%; you are on the money 90%+ of the time.
Thank you so much for everything you contribute to FAIR!
My warmest regards,
Matthew Robert F.
Let us never forget the USA does not have a “Free Press” we have a corporate media. The Media and a press are two different things. One is to report the news and educate the public and the other is to carry the message of the ruling class. That is exactly what the networks and most of the “so called” newspapers do.
We do have a small independent and free press – nothing to compare to the Fascists at Fox . It should surprise no one the media is going soft ball on the un-elected trump (notice how that subject has not been reported in length?)
We are a country following a historical pattern of decline….
There are some errors and misunderstandings about television news in this story.
First, I watch quite a bit of TV news and, in addition to viewing Canadian TV news channels, I watch a fair amount of CNN but…I am not here to promote them.
I happened to be watching the night of the Quebec City mosque massacre when CNN interrupted programming with a Breaking News bulletin about the Q.C.murders. I had earlier been viewing other channels but learned of the shootings first from CNN. From that point on and all through the next day there were many, many more than 4 mentions on news shows and on discussion panels on that network.
And.. many years ago I was disappointed to learn from my tv friends that good video drives television news. This is even more the case today.
In the case of the Parliament Hill shooter in 2014, the riveting video shot of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau running into Parliament apparently with a firearm… and then the loud gun shots echoing throughout the cavernous building with Hollywood movie sound quality was seen repeatedly around the world. The actual sound of those gunshots gave this story legs for days.